rbanffy writes: With the possible exception of ARM in the low-end, there is no viable alternative today to the x86 desktop (sorry for those who make PowerPC ATX mobos, but they are too expensive). If architectures such as POWER and SPARC are to survive, they need enthusiastic developer support. It's not the legacy apps you deploy on a box sitting on your company's data-center, but the cutting edge stuff you develop to solve your problem that fuels the next generation of computers and, unless you have a SPARC or a POWER on your desk, your cutting-edge program will only run on a processor reminiscent of a clunky, heavy and noisy IBM-PC 5150. That's not the right home for an application